224 REPORT OF THE FARM SUPERINTENDENT OF THE 
the planting of the F and B series of plats which enter into this 
examination. 
_ A comparison of the yields from the F and B series shows a 
difference like that referred to very distinctly, but partially due, 
perhaps, to a decrease in the rate of seeding in three of the forms 
used. This difference of growth from climatic condition has this 
year been very materially interfered with, or helped, by potato 
“blight” or “rot,” which. attacked the two series at about the 
same time and at a very different stage of growth. The tubers in 
the most prolific rows of the B plats seemed to be quite as numer- 
ous as in the F plats, but they were very much smaller, which 
would seem to indicate that either the dry weather checked their 
growth, or having escaped that, the blight checked their growth. 
In any case there is as much fairness for one side as another 
in the following experiments. 
The F plats were planted May fourth, while the B plats were 
not planted until May sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and 
twentieth. B 8-13 on the sixteenth, B 13-14 on the seventeenth, 
- B 6 and 7 on the eighteenth and B 15 and 16 on the twentieth. — 
Plats F 3 to 12 and B 8 to 12 are fertilizer plats seeded alike, so 
they can be compared without interference when regarded as 
whole plats, as well as in the case of seeding trials, where there 
are two rows on each plat devoted to different amounts of seed. 
Plats B 6 and 7 are devoted to fertilizer below and above the 
seed, but have the comparison by adjacent rows which have equal 
weight of seed. These are combined for each plat, and they are 
added to the trial on methods of seeding. B13 and 14 are also 
planted with different amounts of seed and by different methods, 
as above, but the two rows having the same amounts of seed are 
~ planted on the surface and in a furrow, and like treatment given 
in other respects. B 15 and 16 are planted with such equal 
weight of seed that half of each can be used in the main trial for 
methods of seeding, but the other halves, on which the same 
weights are in three times as fine state of division, are not used. 
Colorado beetles (Doryphora 10-lineata, Say) attacked the plants — 
as soon as they were out of the ground, and were hand-picked for 
atime. Then London purple was sprayed on the foliage, using a 
force pump and Nixon nozzle, with a barrel in a one-horse wagon. 
This proved fairly satisfactory on the plats where the rows were 
short and the operator could reach half of two plats by passing 
